Ecumenical and interfaith relations suffered some serious blows during 1997, although the year was also marked by a historic agreement between four Protestant denominations. Some churches dealt with dissidents in their ranks through excommunication. Church-state conflicts intensified in the United States and Europe, and increased attention was drawn to the persecution of Christians throughout the world. (For figures on adherents of all religions by continent and on adherents in the U.S., see below.)

The Georgian Orthodox Church withdrew its membership from the World Council of Churches (WCC) in May, claiming that the international ecumenical body failed to take Orthodox interests into account. It was the first time since the WCC was founded in 1948 that an Orthodox church had left the 330-member organization.

Disagreements between Orthodox churches and their ecumenical partners led Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople to boycott the second European Ecumenical Assembly in Graz, Austria, and prompted Russian Orthodox Patriarch Aleksey II to refuse a meeting with Pope John Paul II. In an address in Washington, D.C., in October, Bartholomew stressed the differences between Orthodox and Roman Catholic Christians, saying that "the manner in which we exist has become ontologically different."

A proposed agreement between the 2.5 million-member Episcopal Church and the 5.2 million-member Evangelical Lutheran Church in America was defeated at the ELCA convention in Philadelphia in August. Opposition to the authority of bishops in the Episcopal tradition was a major factor in the defeat of the proposal, but the Lutherans agreed to begin a two-year process of discussion that might lead to a new concordat proposal.

On a more positive note, the ELCA approved a joint declaration with the Roman Catholic Church on the doctrine of justification, saying, "We confess together that all persons depend completely on the saving grace of God for their salvation." Each of the 123 member churches of the Lutheran World Federation was voting independently on the declaration, and the Vatican was continuing to study the document. The ELCA also became the fourth denomination to ratify an agreement to share full communion with three churches in the Reformed tradition--the 3.7 million-member Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the 300,000-member Reformed Church in America, and the 1.5 million-member United Church of Christ. A 1995 decision by the 285,000-member Christian Reformed Church to allow its 47 regional bodies the option of ordaining women as ministers, elders, and evangelists led two smaller bodies--the 278,000-member Presbyterian Church in America and the 22,000-member Orthodox Presbyterian Church--to break fellowship with it in 1997.

As a measure calling on officers to live "in fidelity within the covenant of marriage of a man and a woman or chastity in singleness" took effect in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), its General Assembly in Syracuse, N.Y., adopted a new proposal in June calling on church officers to "demonstrate fidelity and integrity in marriage or singleness, and in all relationships of life." That measure, which would replace the "fidelity and chastity" amendment, then was submitted to presbyteries for approval.

A proposal to recognize same-sex marriages in the Episcopal Church was narrowly rejected by the denomination’s General Convention in Philadelphia in July. The convention also apologized to gays and lesbians for what it called "years of rejection and maltreatment by the church." The Germantown (Pa.) Mennonite Church, the oldest Mennonite church in the U.S., was expelled from its regional conference as of 1998, and its pastor, Richard Lichty, was stripped of his clergy status because the congregation had declared its unconditional acceptance of homosexuals.

Dissent among some fundamentalists and conservative evangelicals led the International Bible Society to drop plans for what it called a "gender-accurate" Bible translation in the United States. A report in World, an evangelical magazine published in Asheville, N.C., charging that the translation was motivated by a feminist agenda led to an outcry. Whereas the Bible Society said that the report was inaccurate, its president, Lars Dunberg, said the organization had concluded that to move ahead with the translation "would cause division within the body of Christ."

In March the 600-member Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the United States and Canada proclaimed that the Conservative and Reform movements "are not Judaism at all." The edict took the two rival movements to task for condoning interfaith marriages and homosexuality and asserted that conversions to Judaism within those movements were not valid. The Rabbinical Council of America, an organization of about 1,000 Orthodox rabbis, said that the smaller group’s declaration "does not reflect the sentiments of mainstream Orthodox Jewish thought since it implies the disenfranchisement of Jews as Jews."

In the interfaith sphere, the Roman Catholic Church made several gestures toward the Jewish people in 1997, including Pope John Paul II’s condemnation of anti-Semitic interpretations of the New Testament and his hailing of the Jews as the people who gave Jesus Christ to all mankind. On the negative side, Southern Baptists and Jews exchanged angry letters prompted by concerns about a 1996 resolution urging Southern Baptists to renew their emphasis on witnessing to Jews.

The Vatican’s chief doctrinal overseer, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, told a French publication in March that Buddhism is "an erotic spirituality" that poses a challenge to the church. However, the Dalai Lama preached from the pulpit in the Washington National Cathedral in April and declared that "all major religious traditions carry basically the same message--that is, love, compassion and forgiveness." And a Buddhist temple in Cambodia agreed to be host of the tomb of a Catholic bishop who died in 1977 in a Khmer Rouge labour camp.

The Rev. Tissa Balasuriya, a Sri Lankan Oblate priest, was excommunicated by the Vatican in January because of his positions on original sin, papal infallibility, Mary, and Christ’s role in salvation. Objections to his book Mary and Human Liberation (1990) figured prominently in the action, which Balasuriya described as "the most severe treatment of a Catholic theologian since Vatican II."

Gleb Yakunin, who was defrocked as a Russian Orthodox priest in 1993, was formally excommunicated in February, as was Patriarch Filaret, the leader of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church. Yakunin was expelled for supporting the Ukrainian and Estonian Orthodox churches in their bid to split from the Russian Orthodox Patriarchate. After Russian Pres. Boris Yeltsin vetoed a bill to restrict the influence of non-Orthodox Christians in Russia, the Russian parliament passed a similar bill in September that Yeltsin signed.

The Russian moves to restrict some churches were among situations cited in an 83-page U.S. State Department report on the persecution of Christians around the world. The report highlighted China as one of the leading offenders and described Saudi Arabia as a country where "freedom of religion does not exist."

In a 6-3 ruling in June, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the four-year-old Religious Freedom Restoration Act, saying that Congress had overstepped its bounds in enacting the measure in response to a 1990 Supreme Court ruling that curtailed protections for religious practice. Two months after the ruling, U.S. Pres. Bill Clinton issued a set of guidelines to "clarify and reinforce the right of religious expression in the federal workplace." On another church-state matter, the high court ruled 5-4 to reverse a 12-year-old decision forbidding publicly financed teachers to tutor children in religious schools. The 1985 ruling, Aguilar v. Felton, had concluded that allowing public employees to work within religious schools would advance religion, but the 1997 Agostini v. Felton decision said government programs do not impermissibly advance religion where they create no financial incentives to religious activity.

In January the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit declared that it is unconstitutional for government officials to tape-record a sacramental confession to a priest by a prisoner. In March the House of Representatives declared that displays of the Ten Commandments should be permitted in government offices and courthouses because they are "a declaration of fundamental principles that are the cornerstone of a fair and just society."

Forty U.S. Orthodox, Protestant, and Roman Catholic leaders issued a statement in July declaring that court rulings have denied the concept of moral truths and given people motivated by religion the status of second-class citizens. The statement cited the 1973 Supreme Court ruling that struck down state abortion laws as a prime example.

Legal restrictions in Germany against the Church of Scientology were criticized in the U.S. State Department’s annual survey of human rights around the world. Earlier, 34 prominent Americans from the entertainment industry had compared the restrictions to the way Germany treated Jews in the 1930s. In June the German government announced that for a year the church would be under nationwide surveillance, including the possibility of tapped telephones and intercepted mail.

German officials’ assertions that Scientology is more of a dangerous cult than a real religion were paralleled by a 600-page report by the Belgian Parliamentary Commission on Cults that applied the label to 189 religious groups. In March the State Secretariat for Cults in Romania barred construction permits for any place of worship not affiliated with one of the 16 religious groups recognized by the state.

Concern about fringe religious movements was heightened in March with the suicide of 39 members of the Heaven’s Gate group in a mansion in a suburb of San Diego. Marshall Applewhite, a Presbyterian minister’s son who was a cofounder of the group, had constructed a religion that blended elements of Christianity, Gnosticism, theosophy, and a belief in extraterrestrial life. Members of the group believed that they were aliens who had been planted on Earth by a UFO, and that through a mixture of drugs, alcohol, and suffocation, they would be transported to a spacecraft hiding behind the Comet Hale-Bopp. (See Special Report.)

Several observers of religious movements considered Heaven’s Gate to be an example of a preoccupation with apocalyptic prophecies in connection with the coming of a new millennium. Stephen O’Leary of the University of Southern California, cofounder of the Center for Millennial Studies, predicted that "there will be more bizarre incidents and gruesome deaths in anticipation of prophetic fulfillment or in the aftermath of apocalyptic disappointment." In the most publicized religious gathering of the year, hundreds of thousands of men assembled on the Mall in Washington, D.C., in October under the auspices of Promise Keepers, a Christian men’s group founded in 1990. The movement stressed reconciliation across denominational and racial boundaries as well as the need for men to practice spiritual, moral, ethical, and sexual purity. Its emphasis on male leadership in family life led the National Organization of for Women to call it "the greatest danger to women’s rights."

Prophetic fulfillment was the theme of The Bible Code (1997), a best-selling book by Michael Drosnin that described the discovery of a code in the text of the Hebrew Bible that contains hidden predictions. The book claimed that the code contains specific references to such events as the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, the Oklahoma City, Okla., bombing, and most of the major historical events of the 20th century. Israeli mathematician Eliyahu Rips, whose discovery was the basis of the book, repudiated Drosnin’s use of his method to allegedly find predictions of specific events.

A more mainstream religious book that also sold well was Just as I Am (1997), the memoirs of evangelist Billy Graham, who turned 79 in November. Another of the century’s towering religious figures, Mother Teresa, the Nobel Prize-winning founder of the Order of the Missionaries of Charity, died in September in Calcutta, where for decades she had fed and ministered to the poorest of the city’s people. (See OBITUARIES.) Pandurang Shastri Athavale, a Hindu who founded a self-help movement for poor villagers in India, was the 1997 winner of the $1.2 million Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion. Athavale’s swadhyaya, or "self-study," movement was estimated to have reached 20 million people in 100,000 villages with its teachings that inner divinity can enable people to overcome self-hatred, prejudice, and the misery of poverty.

Another saga that reflected the year’s religious ferment was the conversion to Islam of Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr. (now Benjamin Chavis Muhammad), former executive director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. He had been ordained to the ministry of the United Church of Christ (UCC) in 1980 and sought to retain that status after joining the Nation of Islam, declaring that "the God who called me into the Christian church is the same God who is calling me into the Nation of Islam." A regional panel of the UCC disagreed, however, stating that he had joined "another faith" and therefore had to forfeit his UCC clergy status.

Protestant Churches

Anglican Communion

Debate over the morality of homosexuality dominated the Anglican Communion in 1997. In February delegates to the Second Anglican Encounter in the South, representing the church’s South American, African, and Pacific provinces, adopted the Kuala Lumpur statement on sexual morality. Named after the Malaysian city in which the meeting was held, it declared that "all sexual promiscuity is sin," including "homosexual practices." Soon afterward, the Anglican church in Southeast Asia unanimously adopted the Kuala Lumpur statement and declared itself in communion only "with that part of the Anglican Communion which accepts and endorses the principles." Meanwhile, the bishops of the Southern Africa province issued a statement in March apologizing to homosexual people who had been hurt by years of "unacceptable prejudice" within the church. The General Convention of the Episcopal Church in the U.S., meeting in Philadelphia in July, adopted a similar apology.

The Episcopal convention in the U.S. refused to ratify the Kuala Lumpur statement and referred it to an interim body for further study. The same convention gave dioceses the option to extend employee health insurance to same-sex couples but refused to authorize pension benefits for them. It also narrowly defeated a provision to develop liturgical rites for the blessing of same-sex couples. The Rt. Rev. Frank T. Griswold III, bishop of Chicago, was elected the Episcopal Church’s presiding bishop for a nine-year term following his January 1998 installation. He succeeded the Rt. Rev. Edmond Browning, who served from 1985 to 1997. The Philadelphia convention approved the Concordat of Agreement, which would have established full communion with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. A month later, however, the Lutheran convention failed to ratify it in a vote that fell six votes short of the required two-thirds majority. The Episcopal convention also adopted a canonical change that required mandatory ordination of women in every diocese. The four dioceses that did not now ordain women (Quincy, Ill.; San Joaquin, Calif.; Fort Worth, Texas; and Eau Claire, Wis.) were given three years to implement the new requirements.

An April survey in the Church of England reported that women constituted 10% of its clergy. Since the first ordinations in March 1994, approximately 2,000 women had been ordained in the church’s 43 dioceses. About 400 of them were rectors or vicars in charge of parishes.

In December 1996 the Nippon Sei Ko Kai (Anglican Church in Japan) adopted a statement admitting the church’s responsibility and sin for supporting Japan’s "war of aggression" during World War II. Instead of standing beside "those who are oppressed and suffering," the church made compromises with the "militarism that drove the war effort," the statement acknowledged.

The Rt. Rev. John Elbridge Hines, the Episcopal Church’s 22nd presiding bishop, died July 19 in Austin, Texas. He was presiding bishop from 1965 to 1974 and led the church through a stormy period of civil rights activism. (SeeOBITUARIES.)

In late 1996 the Episcopal Church’s national office reported errors in statistical reports that gave the impression the church gained 90,000 members between 1991 and 1994. The report acknowledged that the church actually lost 26,000 members during those years.David Sumner

Baptist Churches.

Frustrated by the lack of results of an earlier protest, the Southern Baptist Convention at its annual meeting called for a boycott of the Walt Disney Co. by all of its 15 million members. On June 18, 1997, 12,000 delegates gathered in Dallas, Texas, urged the boycott to protest Disney’s support of homosexuals, exemplified by the provision of health benefits for the partners of the company’s homosexual employees. The convention’s vote to support the recommended boycott was so overwhelming that a count of the vote was not taken.

At the March meeting of the Baptist World Alliance in McLean, Va., representatives from Baptist bodies throughout the world gathered to report progress and challenges. It was reported that churches in Cuba had been packed, and at one service in the western part of the island, 100 young people responded to a call to the ministry. Samuel Fadeji, president of the All-Africa Baptist Fellowship, reported an increase in new churches to add to the 5,600 churches and more than one million baptized believers in the Nigerian Baptist Convention.

In Azerbaijan Pastor Zaur Balayev and a deacon of the church in Aliabad were arrested. The two men allegedly were put in prison only because of their positions of responsibility with the Baptist Church. The Baptist general secretary, Karl Heinz Walter of the European Baptist Federation, protested to the president of Azerbaijan, stating, "We can assure you that the members of Baptist churches have always been faithful citizens of the countries where they live, but at the same time have insisted on religious freedom for every person."

In the United States the Alliance of Baptists, a moderate group formed in 1987 after disagreeing with the conservative leadership of the Southern Baptist Convention, reported that it had begun discussions with the United Church of Christ about ways in which the two might work together. The Alliance, which included Baptists from a variety of denominations, had changed from a protest group within the Southern Baptist Convention to an independent organization.

Along similar ecumenical lines, Baptists in England, specifically members of the Covenanted Baptist Churches of the Baptist Union of Great Britain, joined in considering a proposal that the world’s first ecumenical bishop be appointed. The bishop would be the head of five denominations, including the Baptists.

In August it was revealed that the Rev. Henry Lyons, the president of the National Baptist Convention USA, Inc., had purchased expensive personal items with money that the denomination had earned from business deals. Documents indicated that Lyons and Bernice Edwards, the church’s public relations director, had used at least $187,000 in church money toward buying a house, a Mercedes-Benz, and a time-share unit.

Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

More than 8,400 members of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) gathered in Denver, Colo., in July 1997, passing resolutions restating the General Assembly’s opposition to the U.S. trade embargo on Cuba, demanding increased police accountability, and asking congregations to monitor welfare reform. The decision-making body also lobbied for improved job training and employment opportunities for African-American males, called for removal of the U.S. military from Okinawa, Japan, and emphasized Jerusalem’s importance to Christian, Muslim, and Jewish traditions.

The assembly also initiated a test run of a discernment process, designed to help the church listen for God’s will on divisive or controversial issues instead of seeking a majority vote. Biblical authority and racism were the issues discussed during the initial round. In other action voters elected the Rev. Michael W. Mooty of Lexington, Ky., moderator of the General Assembly through 1999.

In keeping with the assembly’s call for more accountability for law-enforcement officials, the denomination’s general minister and president, Richard L. Hamm, issued a pastoral letter in August condemning the beating of a Haitian member of the Disciples by New York City police. "We must stand for zero tolerance of police abuse and for renewed commitment to public accountability of law enforcement officers and their agencies," said Hamm.

In March approximately 300 volunteers gathered near tiny Chelford, Ark., to help rebuild an African-American church destroyed by arson in 1995. The Burned Churches ministry of the National Council of Churches later honoured the Disciples for the 10-day reconstruction of St. Mark’s Missionary Baptist Church. The 35-member congregation held its first formal service in the new structure on Easter morning.

Churches of Christ

"Africans Claiming Africa," an evangelistic conference, drew to Harare, Zimb., 1,745 leaders of the Churches of Christ from 17 African countries, speaking 47 languages. Participants reported that there were 9,398 Churches of Christ congregations in Africa, an increase of 34% in five years. They attributed this growth to two factors: the growth of brotherhood schools and the World Bible School correspondence courses. The church celebrated the 100th anniversary of its establishment in Zimbabwe.

Four books written by members of Churches of Christ were on the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association best-seller list during 1997, including two by Max Lucado, God’s Inspirational Promises and In the Grip of Grace. Two scholarly books with great impact were The Church of Christ: A Biblical Ecclesiology for Today (1996) by Everett Ferguson and Reviving the Ancient Faith: The Story of Churches of Christ in America (1996) by Richard T. Hughes.

"Saving the American Family," a national conference in San Antonio, Texas, highlighted a major emphasis in the Churches of Christ in 1997. This included training in spiritual leadership for men at a rally in Tulsa, Okla., that drew men from 14 states. Abstinence-based sex-education programs for young people were gaining in popularity.

Church of Christ, Scientist

The increased demand for spirituality and healing was the focus of the Church’s 102nd annual meeting in Boston. The church president, J. Thomas Black of Michigan, remarked to those present that this reach toward spirituality was changing the ways in which people think about theology, science, and medicine. Black saw this "spiritual hunger that now reaches across ages and races" as a reflection of humanity’s "longing to know God’s true identity." He said the church was well prepared to meet this longing because of the teachings of the Bible in the light of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, the discoverer of Christian Science. "And the proof is in nearly 125 years of consistent healing based on these books," Black concluded.

Other speakers discussed the beneficial effect of the increased distribution of Science and Health. A former registered nurse shared how reading Science and Health transformed her life from sickness to health, into the full-time practice of Christian Science healing; others talked about Christian Science lectures that had been held at a major medical school in the United States and at two large hospitals in India.

The growing interest in the beneficial role of prayer for physical healing was demonstrated when a church representative served on the faculty at two major conferences in Boston (December 1996) and Los Angeles (March 1997) entitled "Spirituality and Healing in Medicine," sponsored by Harvard Medical School.

Other significant events during 1997 included a favourable decision for the church when the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court endorsed the administrative and fiscal autonomy of churches and other public charities, an award from the Laymen’s National Bible Association acknowledging the church’s long-standing promotion of the Bible, and establishment of a restoration program to upgrade church facilities.

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

In 1997 the nearly 10 million-member Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints conducted a yearlong celebration of the entrance of their Mormon forebears into the Salt Lake Valley 150 years earlier. The festivities included theatrical performances, television documentaries, celebratory literature, special exhibits in the Church Museum of History and Art, and, above all, a reliving of the trek from the Missouri Valley to the Salt Lake Valley by hundreds of horse-drawn wagons and handcarts--a journey that required three months. The wagon trains were made up of volunteer men, women, and children, dressed in pioneer clothing, and included church members from as far away as Siberia, with a considerable number from Great Britain and continental Europe as well as from all parts of the United States and Canada. The finale was their entrance into the Salt Lake Valley on July 23, to participate in the giant sesquicentennial parade of July 24. July 19 was designated Pioneer Heritage Day, and each local congregation throughout the world was asked to contribute a minimum of 150 hours of community service. Perhaps as many as 10,000 local service projects were completed on this and following days. The church’s women’s organization, the Relief Society, conducted a worldwide campaign to improve literacy. A special event in San Francisco celebrated the 238 men, women, and children who traveled west on the ship Brooklyn, which landed in Yerba Buena (San Francisco) in 1846.

Church president Gordon B. Hinckley conducted services in many parts of the world in connection with local history celebrations, the dedication of temples, the opening of visitors centres, and the holding of area conferences. He made special visits to major cities in Europe, Asia, Central and South America, and Australia and New Zealand.

Church authorities began construction of a "great hall" across from Temple Square in downtown Salt Lake City to accommodate 21,000 persons for religious services and other church purposes such as the presentation of sacred pageants and community cultural events. The building, scheduled for completion in April 2000, was expected to cost approximately $240 million.

Jehovah’s Witnesses.

On May 29, 1997, the European Court of Human Rights rendered an important decision in favour of the plaintiffs in the cases of Tsirlis and Kouloumpasv.Greece and Georgiadisv.Greece. The plaintiffs were Jehovah’s Witnesses ministers, who as Christian clergy were exempted from military service by Greek law but who claimed to have been wrongfully denied that status. The court ruled in favour of the ministers, setting a precedent for future cases concerning conscientious objection.

Earlier that month Jehovah’s Witnesses again promoted the importance of adhering strongly to one’s principles. On May 15 the videotape Jehovah’s Witnesses Stand Firm Against Nazi Assault was screened publicly in Moscow and was simultaneously aired on television in St. Petersburg. The documentary recounts the little-known story of the courageous stand of Jehovah’s Witnesses during the Hitler era. By late 1997 it had been viewed at more than 160 public showings in Germany and was being used in classrooms in the United States. Regarding the integrity of Jehovah’s Witnesses, Swiss Protestant theologian Theophile Bruppacher said, "Not the great churches, but these slandered and scoffed-at people were the ones who stood up first against the rage of the Nazi demon and who dared to make opposition according to their faith."

Lutheran Communion

The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) celebrated its 50th anniversary by holding its ninth assembly in Hong Kong on July 8-16, within days after the handover of that city to China. The assembly, the LWF’s highest decision-making body, normally meets every six years. Representatives from 122 member churches took part in the event. The assembly reviewed the work of the LWF since the last conference (in Curitiba, Braz., in 1990) and heard addresses on human rights, mission, the church in China, and Christian unity. Edward Cardinal Cassidy of the Vatican delivered an encouraging report on the proposed joint declaration between Lutherans and Roman Catholics on the nonapplicability of the 16th-century condemnations by the Roman Catholic Church of the doctrine of justification by grace through faith. A final decision on the joint declaration by Lutherans and Roman Catholics was expected in 1998. Hong Kong’s chief executive Tung Chee Hwa greeted the assembly and gave a commitment to freedom of religion in the Hong Kong special administrative region. After some debate the assembly decided not to make a statement on human rights in China. This decision subsequently became a matter of some controversy, particularly in regard to criticism raised by some in the German media. In a break with tradition, the assembly elected a president from outside the region of the meeting, selecting Christian Krause, a bishop from Brunswick, Ger.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada reelected Telmor G. Sartison as its bishop and took official action to develop closer ties with the Anglican Church in Canada. The Evangelical Lutheran churches in Germany and the Mennonites agreed to provide occasional eucharistic hospitality to each other’s members. The Church of Sweden, the largest Lutheran church in the world, elected Christina Odenberg as its first woman bishop; Bishop K.G. Hammer became the archbishop of Uppsala, Swed. In the U.S. the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod celebrated its 150th anniversary.

The biennial assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), the second largest Lutheran church in the world, was dominated by ecumenical decisions. With 81.3% of the delegates voting "yes," the ELCA approved a relationship of full communion with three Reformed churches: the Presbyterian Church (USA), the Reformed Church in America, and the United Church of Christ. By a vote of 958-25, the ELCA adopted the joint declaration on justification, stating that a consensus on this doctrine existed between Lutherans and Roman Catholics. This decision was now shared with the LWF as it sought to determine if a consensus existed among its member churches. The ELCA rejected the proposal for full communion with the Episcopal Church by a vote of 684-351, just short of the required two-thirds majority.

Methodist Churches

Figures published in 1997 showed a 14% increase in the membership of churches belonging to the World Methodist Council (WMC) compared with 1992 (the last census). Total membership was 33,011,100, with the largest increase--89%--being in Asia. There were 14,767,000 Methodists (45% of the total) in the United States.

The European Methodist Council, meeting in Copenhagen in September, discussed a paper suggesting various options for its future, as did the Executive Committee of the WMC meeting in Rome later the same month; there, members were being asked to decide on the role and function of the council appropriate for the new century. Both bodies expressed concern over the restrictions to religious liberty in Russia that would result from the new legislation regarding freedom of conscience and religious association. The new law introduced a two-level system for religious associations, with only those in the first group--religious organizations that had been active in Russia for 50 years and were represented widely geographically--enjoying full rights and therefore able to operate in a normal way. The European Methodist Council sent a letter to Russian Pres. Boris Yeltsin, and the WMC Executive Committee agreed to a letter inviting fellow Christians in Russia "to enter a mutual dialogue so that we may recognize the ties that bind us together and such common ways for the proclamation of the gospel."

The Methodist Church in Hong Kong published a pastoral letter to its members supporting Hong Kong’s change to become a special administrative region within China but also emphasizing that the new government has responsibilities for upholding and defending the sovereignty of the nation, serving the people, and defending their dignity and rights. For the first time, the World Methodist Peace Award was given not to an individual but to an organization, the Roman Catholic community of St. Egidio, a volunteer service group organized along the lines of Catholic lay movements of Renaissance Italy.

After 20 years of discussions, the Orthodox and Methodist churches moved from a preparatory to an official stage in order "not only to enjoy sisterly relations, but also to bear joint witness to the Gospel before the world." Ecumenical discussions between Methodists and Roman Catholics continued during the year. Leaders of the World Methodist Council Executive Committee met with Pope John Paul II, who gave "thanks to God for the progress made in the official dialogue between our two communions."

Pentecostal Churches.

Pentecostals and charismatics were heavily involved in the largest religious gathering in the history of the United States on Oct. 4, 1997, when as many as 1.5 million Christian men, who belonged to the organization Promise Keepers, gathered on the Mall in Washington, D.C. Leaders from the charismatic tradition, such as Promise Keepers founder Bill McCartney and pastors Jack Hayford and Joseph Garlington, were prominent on the platform. Other groups also served as host for large gatherings. A week earlier the world conference of the Assemblies of God reported that more than one million persons had attended the conference’s final rally in São Paulo, Braz.

In June, after Pat Robertson sold his television company, the Family Channel, he gave $150 million of the proceeds to Regent University, Virginia Beach, Va., which made it the most richly endowed evangelical university in the U.S. Indeed, there was a boom in Pentecostal education during the year. Lee College, Cleveland, Tenn. (Church of God), was upgraded to university status, while Emmanuel College (Pentecostal Holiness), in Franklin Springs, was the fastest-growing college in Georgia for the second year in a row. Also in September the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary dedicated its new $4.5 million building debt free.

Among the Pentecostal denominations several major changes in leadership occurred during the year. In July, John R. Holland resigned under pressure as president of the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel. He was succeeded by Harold E. Helms, the longtime pastor of Angelus Temple in Los Angeles. In August, James D. Leggett was elected to head the International Pentecostal Holiness Church in Kansas City, Mo., while in the same month in Indianapolis, Ind., the Assemblies of God reelected Thomas E. Trask to the office of general superintendent for a four-year term.

The 1997 meeting of the interracial Pentecostal/Charismatic Churches of North America, which met in Washington, D.C., in October, chose to elect co-chairmen for the next two years. Elected were Bishop Gilbert E. Patterson of the Church of God in Christ and Trask.

On the international scene 400 church leaders and theologians gathered in Prague in September under the leadership of Michael Harper and the International Charismatic Consultation on World Evangelism. Designed especially for Eastern Europeans, the organization for the first time attracted significant numbers of Russian Orthodox charismatics as participants.

Reformed, Presbyterian, and Congregational Churches

"Break the Chains of Injustice" was the theme of the 23rd General Council of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC), which took place in Debrecen, Hung., in August 1997. The General Council meets every seven to eight years to seek a common response to the challenges facing Reformed churches locally and globally. More than 400 delegates from member churches took part in the meeting.

Topping the council’s list of "chains" was global economic injustice. World hunger and misery, the yawning gulf between underdeveloped and developed countries, the debt crisis that cripples the poor, and the environmental crisis that threatens everyone had been of concern to Reformed churches for many years. Responding to a strong plea from member churches in the South in particular, however, the council declared that these were not just moral issues but questions close to the heart of the Christian gospel and touching on the integrity of Christian faith. It called member churches to a processus confessionis, a "committed process of progressive recognition, education, and confession within all WARC member churches at all levels regarding economic injustice and ecological destruction."

In 1982 the 21st council had suspended the Dutch Reformed Church (DRC) in South Africa from full membership in WARC because of its theological and practical support for apartheid. The 23rd council agreed to lift this suspension, provided the General Synod of the DRC, meeting in 1998, acknowledged unequivocally that "apartheid is wrong and sinful not simply in its effects and operations but also in its fundamental nature." Elected president of WARC was Song Choan-seng, a minister in the Presbyterian Church of Taiwan.

In March WARC held a consultation in Geneva to look afresh at human rights from a theological perspective. Bilateral dialogues were conducted with the Oriental Orthodox on "Holy Scripture: its authority and inspiration" and "the function of theological reflection and the work of theologians" in Kottayam, Kerala, India, in January and with the Pentecostals on "the role and place of the Holy Spirit in the church" in Chicago in May.

Three new member churches were admitted to WARC in 1997: the Evangelical Church in the Dominican Republic, the United Church of Christ Congregational in the Marshall Islands, and the United Church of Christ in the Solomon Islands. In 1997 WARC linked more than 70 million Christians in 211 churches in 103 countries.

The Religious Society of Friends.

Nearly 300 representatives from more than 70 autonomous groups of Friends (Quakers) from throughout the world gathered for the 19th Triennial meeting of the Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC) at Westhill College, Birmingham, Eng., during the last week of July 1997. The theme was "Answering the Love of God: Living our Testimonies." Those gathered were reminded that God loves us with a boundless, unconditional, self-giving love and that we are called to express that love in specific ways to one another, to our families, to our neighbours, to the needy--even to those who act as enemies.

Decisions made at the Triennial included the naming of new leadership for the FWCC. This resulted in a notable shift of responsibility, with Friends from the Southern Hemisphere taking on some of the key posts. David Purnell (Australia) was appointed clerk, Duduzile Mtshazo (South Africa) assistant clerk, and Elizabeth Duke (New Zealand) general secretary. All were scheduled to begin three-year terms in January 1998, as would Patricia Thomas of the U.S., who was named associate secretary.

Issues on which those at the Triennial called for action by all Friends included further support of the work by the Quaker United Nations Office in Geneva opposing the use of children in armed conflict. The meeting affirmed Friends’ long-standing opposition to the use of violence in any conflict. The concern for children was part of this wider commitment.

Some other issues calling for action included sexual discrimination, harassment, and abuse among Friends; truth and integrity in public affairs (challenging Friends to dialogue with their governments); climate change (stemming from a call by the World Council of Churches to address the problem of global warming); and refugees (many of them Quaker) in central Africa.

Salvation Army

On Dec. 12, 1996, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom officially opened Edward Alsop Court in London. Developed by the Salvation Army, it offered accommodations, training, and rehabilitation for homeless men.

During 1997 the Salvation Army focused its attention on South Africa. A report submitted to that nation’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission maintained that the Army’s contribution to South African society had been positive. The Army admitted, however, that its apolitical attitude toward apartheid was not representative of its tradition of promoting universal justice. The presentation concluded by promising to fight racism whenever necessary.

In Cape Town 500 participants aged 18-25, representing the Army’s 50 world territories, met for the first time as the International Youth Forum. They were addressed on behalf of South African Pres. Nelson Mandela by Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi, the nation’s minister of welfare and population development. She encouraged them to take their responsibilities seriously and to meet the needs of the next millennium.

During the year the Army prayed and petitioned for greater freedoms for Christians in many parts of the world; particular concerns were for those in Pakistan and Russia. World prayer was also invoked for continued religious freedom for the people of Hong Kong following its restoration to Chinese rule.Charmaine Fletcher

Seventh-day Adventist Church

In 1997 Brazil surpassed the United States as the country with the largest number of Seventh-day Adventists. Although the church originated in North America, it continued to grow faster in Central and South America, Africa, and Asia. At the end of 1996, North America accounted for only 10% of the world membership, which numbered 9,296,127 in 207 countries.

Plans for the church to achieve worldwide communication via satellite continued to progress. The church developed a satellite network in North, Central, and South America and set in motion a strategy for a worldwide network in 40 languages within the next two years. The Adventist satellite network was intended to provide programs for communicating news and information, spiritual nurture, evangelism, and educational and health care instruction.

The church’s humanitarian arm, the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA), worked in more than 140 countries during 1997. ADRA signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the UN World Food Programme under which the agency would be responsible for the final distribution and monitoring of all food commodities delivered to it by the World Food Programme.

At its highest level the church voted to issue a statement on child sexual abuse that called the Adventists to increase their awareness of the problem, to be actively involved in its prevention, to assist abused and abusive individuals and their families spiritually, and to hold church professionals and church lay leaders accountable for maintaining appropriate personal behaviour. In another important thrust, world president Robert S. Folkenberg called on the church for personal and corporate spiritual accountability among all its clergy, educators, health care workers, and administrators.

Dialogue with the Lutheran World Federation continued in a third round of consultations held at Jongny, Switz. Discussions focused on theological doctrine and authority. The church also engaged in further official dialogue with representatives of the Worldwide Church of God.

Unitarian (Universalist) Churches.

By 1997 approximately 50% of all active ministers and a majority of the students studying for Unitarian Universalist-related careers were women. The positions of executive editor of World, the official magazine of the denomination, and director of the Beacon Press, its main book-publishing house, were occupied by women.

Attended by some 3,300 delegates, the annual General Assembly of the Unitarian Universalist Association of Churches was held in Phoenix, Ariz., June 19-24. The theme of the meeting was "Building Interfaith Cooperation." Reelected for second four-year terms were the Rev. John A. Buehrens as president and Denise Taft Davidoff as moderator.

The Unitarian Universalist Service Committee during the year established partnerships with appropriate groups and specialists working on women’s and children’s rights, refugee relief, and health in Mexico, Myanmar (Burma), Kenya, Burundi, Rwanda, and eastern Zaire (now Democratic Republic of the Congo). Services were being supplied through these channels.

The International Council of Unitarians and Universalists in April held its second annual meeting in England and a training session in Klingborg, Ger. Twenty-two countries and regions were represented, including for the first time Finland and Tierra del Fuego.

The buildings of the Prague’s Unitarian congregation, once the world’s largest, were taken over by a dissident group of parishioners, who locked out the mainstream followers. Unitarians throughout the world protested. Local Prague courts declared the action illegal. As of late 1997, however, the Ministry of Culture had not returned the property to the traditional body.

In Romania Arpad Szabo became the new bishop of the consistory of the Unitarian Church. Resolutions were passed by the General Assembly of the British Unitarian movement calling (among others) for an end to the manufacture, trade, and use of antipersonnel land mines; and for year-round shelters for homeless people in Britain.

The United Church of Canada.

National meetings of the General Council highlighted the year for the United Church of Canada in 1997. The meetings were held in Camrose, Alta., August 14-21. The council elected the Rev. William Phipps for a three-year term as moderator of Canada’s largest Protestant denomination. Phipps succeeded Marion Best. The 379 delegates agreed to ask district presbyteries to endorse a standard three-year term between council meetings, beginning in the year 2000.

A major decision was to extend the United Church’s apology that was offered to native congregations in 1986. The council did so by expressing its deep regret and sorrow to the First Nations people for the injustices of residential schools and for the church’s role in them. In 1997 the United Church was named as a defendant in connection with a former school near Port Alberni, B.C. A fund to support healing projects for victims of the native residential schools raised 40% of its $1 million goal.

Among other business, delegates adopted a plan to help congregations discover their mission and to support and develop congregational life. The council also opposed programs forcing the poor to work, voted to review the systems for resource distribution within the church, endorsed the development of a code of ethical behaviour, and reaffirmed its commitment to youth work.

During the last fiscal year, the denomination’s nearly two million known members and adherents raised Can$313,360,727 for all purposes. Contributions to the church’s national mission fund continued to stagnate as congregations directed more of their support toward local mission projects. The surplus of clergy reported in 1996 continued through 1997.

Sales of the church’s new hymnbook, Voices United, remained at a high level. To accompany this popular hymnal, the church planned to prepare a new liturgical resource book. Also in 1997, the church’s national United Church Women’s organization marked the 35th anniversary of its founding.

United Church of Christ.

In July 1997, in a historic vote, the 21st General Synod of the United Church of Christ voted to declare full communion with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). In so doing, the UCC joined its two partners, the Presbyterian Church (USA) and the Reformed Church in America, which had voted full communion with the ELCA in June. In August the ELCA voted affirmatively, and so, pending confirmation by two-thirds of the presbyteries of the Presbyterian Church (USA), these historic affirmations would bring together in full communion these Reformed and Lutheran bodies for the first time since the Reformation, more than 400 years ago.

The 21st General Synod also celebrated the 40th anniversary of the UCC and the 150th anniversary of the American Missionary Association; reaffirmed the church’s commitment to be and become a multiracial, multicultural church; supported "a comprehensive global ban" on land mines; expressed concern about the cloning of humans and other mammals and called on UCC national agencies to develop a proposal for action on this issue at the 1999 Synod; condemned the 1996 Welfare Reform Act as "unconscionable"; affirmed that Jerusalem should be an open city that respects the human and political rights of Palestinians and Israelis and the rights of all three religious groups residing there--Christians, Muslims, and Jews; reaffirmed "fidelity and integrity" as standards for sexual and relational behaviour; recommended new patterns of giving to fund church ministries; and voted to join in a formal partnership with the Council of Churches in Cuba. Paul H. Sherry was reelected president of the UCC.

Throughout the year significant attention was given to church growth and development and stewardship and financial concerns. The need to identify, support, and train new clergy and lay leadership was increasingly acknowledged.